The Robotnik Project
by Mamuta
Summary: Chapter 2 is up. Tails's quiet, isolated life changes forever as he crosses paths with a wise cracking blue hedgehog and his friends. Together, they unearth an ancient power and, along with it, a conspiracy that threatens to destroy their hometown and the people they love along with it. AU.
1. Tikal

Tails's entry into the classroom garnered the reactions he expected. A series of whispers and giggles and gasps and confused glances and the like. He was used to it though. If there's anything Tails had learned how to do in his eleven years alive, it was ignoring people.

As he sat down on a far end of the room, a badger girl with deep brown fur sitting to his left, and a vacant seat to his right, attention gradually faded away from him and the anomaly he carried. Mutations were uncommon, but not unheard of. Being an 11 year old in a freshman math class was a bit uncommon too, but most people had heard about the few younger, "exceptional" students that would be joining them that year.

Miles slipped a hand into the bag laying by his feet and pulled out his phone. Meteortech. Not a very appreciated brand compared to Robotnik, but Miles was a big fan. Mostly because it was easy to modify. His phone, originally a dull, grey rectangle with a screen, had been painted bright orange, the same colors as the Fox boy's fur. A custom made case along with numerous hardware and software changes that weren't immediately visible were also present. This phone truly was his.

"Um..excuse me." Miles was brought back to reality by a high pitched, tentative voice. He looked up to see a girl, her fur the same Color as Miles's, but a bit brighter. Long quills dropped down the sides of her head. She was an Echidna. Uncommon, but not unheard of. She looked like she could be Miles's age, maybe a bit clothes she wore, a plain, white tank top, a skirt that appeared to be homemade but with a variety of interesting patterns of red and blue and orange and green on it, and a necklace adorned with a symbol Miles recognized straight away. A Chaos Emerald. She seemed to be the spiritual type.

"Is anyone sitting here?" she asked. Miles simply shook his head. His attention went back to his phone as she slipped over occupied the vacant seat next to him.

The teacher, a middle aged pig man who asked to be addressed as Mr. Lewis, began calling out names. Miles didn't bother paying attention after his name was called. He doubted his classmates would want to get to know him, so why bother getting to know them?

"...Sonic? Sonic T Hedgehog?" Giggles made their way through the room. Miles felt a mix of pity and confusion. Who the heck would name their kid that?

Just as the teacher looked ready to move on, a distant "Here!" echoed from out of the doorway. A hedgehog with dark blue fur stumbled inside, clearly out of breath. "Here..." he said, clearly out of breath. "Here...present...whatever."

"Tardy? With that name? Ironic." The teacher said stiffly, bringing out laughter from the class. "Since it's the first day, I'll be a bit forgiving, but I'd suggest not making it a habit, Mr Hedgehog. Take a seat."

"Sure thing boss." Sonic said in an almost whimsical tone. Turning around, he didn't catch the slightly annoyed look Mr. Lewis gave him. He made his way toward the back of the room. After glancing around and seeing the back row was full, Sonic parked himself in the vacant seat in front of Miles, much to his disappointment. He could already tell "Sonic" wasn't the type to take things seriously.

The first day had been going without a hitch. Most of the classes seemed easy enough, but now, it was time for the most daunting period of the day.

Lunch.

As Miles slipped into the back of the line, anxiety gripped him. Sitting alone would just mean people he didn't know and couldn't be bother with would try to approach him, but he hadn't exactly done a good job making friends today, mostly blowing off anyone who approached him.

"Hey." A voice came from behind him. Miles turned to the source. It was the Echidna girl from earlier."You're...in my math class, right?"

Tails nodded. "I was sitting right next to you." he replied dryly.

"Right, right." The girl said, giggling a bit. "So...you're in that gifted students program too, right?"

Tails nodded, noticing her choice of words. It explained why she looked so young. "How'd you guess?"

"It's because of how you look." The girl said plainly. "I..I mean I'm not trying to say you look like a kid..you just looking younger than everyone else. I'm not trying to assume you are..I mean you must be because you're in the gifted program like me...Uh.." Tails was beginning to wonder just how exactly this girl was in the gifted program in the first place.

"Wow, I haven't even told you my name yet.." She smiled, holding out her hand. "I'm Tikal. And you are?"

"Miles." Tails said, shaking her hand. He didn't think someone could outdo him in social awkwardness, but this school seemed to be full of surprises.

Exiting the lunch line, Tikal led Miles over to a lunch table on the far side of the lunchroom. Already sitting on one side was Sonic, fully immersed in his meal. another Echidna, this time male, with a stocky build and red fur, and another hedgehog, this time female, dressed in red, her quills dropping down her face like that of an Echidna. The red Echidna looked up toward their direction and frowned. "Sis, what did I say this morning?"

"I know, I know. 'Find your own friends'" Tikal's imitation of the older Echidna's voice was surprisingly accurate, even crossing her eyes together in a bit of a dopey way. Tails had to stifle a laugh. He sure didn't want to get on this guy's bad side.

"But...all the tables are full, and we don't really know anyone else..." Tikal said, looking off to the side.

"I don't see why they can't stay!" The pink hedgehog sitting to the right of Tikal's brother piped up. Her voice busted with pep and energy. "Look at the poor things. They look like 7th graders. Nobody would want to hang out with them...no offense." Amy mumbled, looking over the two of them, glancing a bit longer at Miles's mutation than he would have liked.

"But she's my sister. We can't hang around eachother like thi-

"Yeah, she's your sister, which is exactly why you should let her hang with us!" the girl said, cutting him off. The Echidna's stocky size and muscles didn't seem to intimidate her in the slightest. "What if she, like, never makes friends and dies alone?"

"Why do you always have to exaggerate?"

"Why do _you _have to be so mean?"

As the argument continued, Tails began to wonder if sitting alone would be all that bad.

"What do you think, Sonic?" the hedgehog girl finally turned toward the blue hedgehog. It was the first time hel ooked up from his food since the argument started. It seemed to be normal to him.

Sonic sized the two of them up. "You're the two brainiacs from my math class, right?"

Tikal nodded. Tails just stood there.

"..Eh, they seem cool." Sonic said before returning to his food.

"That's majority!" Amy said, smiling. "Sit down."

_Finally._ Tails thought. his feet had began to ache.

"Alright," Amy began. "I kinda know _you_." she pointed to Tikal. "Because of _him." _She pointed to knuckles. "But he never talks about you, and I don't know him. Over to Miles. "So what are your names?"

"Tikal." Tikal said warmly. "And this is Miles."

Miles gave the hedgehog girl an awkward nod before turning his attention toward his food.

"Shy, huh?" She remarked. "Well, that's okay. I broke this one.." she elbowed the bigger Echidna playfully. "...So I can break you too."

Miles didn't like the sound of being "broken" but he just decided to go along with it, smiling.

"I'm Amy, the angry jerk is..well, we call him Knuckles, and the living vacuum is Sonic." Tikal let out a little giggle. Knuckles frowned. Sonic's attention didn't leave his food.

_At least lunch wont be boring. _Miles thought.

* * *

Yeah, I'm doing this.

I know the Highschool AU is always mocked as a concept, but does it always have to be bad? I'm going to try and take a crack at this. Will I succeed? Probably not, but it should be an interesting ride either way.

The more "Sonicy" elements should start showing up next chapter. Reviews are appreciated.


	2. The Steel Sentinel

Destruction. Calamity. Screams of every type. Males. Females. The young. The old. She could feel the pain and suffering of thousands. Millions.

Tikal covered her ears. She ran. The screams. She had to escape them. There had to be away. If they could just stop screaming for at least a _second-_

Suddenly, light. The sun. No sound but water running.

All around her were broken buildings and highways and bodies. Water consumed the streets.

At the center of it all, a large pillar of water rose. It climbed high and higher until it reached over any rooftop. It began to take form. features began to etch itself into the pillar. horrifying green eyes that stared dead into your soul. Fangs hanging out of the side of a mouth twisted into a psychotic grimace. The nose was long and lizard-like. It's scaley, leathery skin ran from it's nose down it's back.

It's mouth opened, unleashing a terrifying roar. The most horrifying sound Tikal had ever heard.

* * *

"-kal. TIKAL. WAKE UP!"

Five more knocks on the door and Tikal was sitting up in bed. That dream again...it had haunted her consistently since summer time and didn't appear to be letting up for the school year.

"If you actually want to come with me to hang out with the guys today than you need to hurry up." Knuckles called in through the door.

Tikal let out something weak and groggy that sounded vaguely like an "okay" and shuffled toward her closet. Spending her saturday with her new friends sounded good. Anything to shake off that awful dream...

* * *

Tikal stumbled down the stairs, still groggy. The nightmares hadn't made her sleep very pleasant.

She passed through the living room, if you could call it that. There was only one box TV with a couch that had certainly seen it's fair share of wear and tear in the center. Hardly the highest end luxuries.

As she sat at the dinner table her father gave her a look. "You shouldn't sleep in so late, sweetheart." He said, taking a bite of his pancakes. As if on que, Her mom slid a plate of them in front of her. "I know it's the weekend, but it isn't healthy."

Tikal nodded. "Yes dad. I'll try and wake up earlier."

Her father, satisfied, turned her attention toward Knuckles. "What's the rush, son?"

Tikal looked over at Knuckles and noticed how he had been scarfing down Pancakes pretty quickly. "Gotta hurry. We're gonna go hang with some friends in a bit." Knuckles said, mouth full of pancake. He pointed at Tikal. "She needs to hurry too if she's coming with."

"Hanging out, huh?" He said, his voice already going into pre-fuss mode, as Tikal liked to call it. "Not with that delinquent, Sonic, am I correct?"

"I told you, I don't talk to Sonic anymore." Knuckles replied matter of factually. While Tikal hadn't actually met Sonic in the flesh until earlier that week, she had heard more enough about him from their arguments. It had started when Knuckles began skipping out on their weekly meditating sessions to hang out with Sonic. Tikal knew the two had been and still were close friends, and she knew that Sonic was the exact person they'd be hanging out with today, but she and her brother had an agreement not to mention it. Sonic was nice and funny as far as she could tell, a bit of a screwball but nothing really harmful.

She could tell her dad was suspicious, but decided not to comment. He was strict, but not strict to the point where he would restrict him from leaving the house over something he couldn't prove.

* * *

Another peak at his phone. Not even two minutes since the last time he checked. He didn't really need to know the time, anyway.

In front of him sat Amy, idly tapping away on her phone. It was Robotnik brand, which made the tech geek in him want to scream, but he ignored the urge. Neither of them had spoken more than two words since Amy had gotten there. Not that it was her fault. She had tried to initiate conversation, but Miles wasn't quite the social butterfly Amy was. They weren't a great mix. Someone, anyone else showing up would ease up the awkward a tad.

An invitation to see a movie after only knowing him for a week seemed strange, but it was Amy who asked, and Amy seemed eager to want to get to know him. He kind of envied her sociability in a way. Sonic and Knuckles didn't seem to care if he hung around or not, but Amy always managed to try to get him included in the conversation.

"Oh, geeze..." Miles heard Amy mumble under her breath. He looked up at her. When Amy noticed his stare, she smiled a bit. "Oh, it's just...you heard about those disappearances, right?"

Miles nodded. He had heard, but he didn't honestly didn't really think much of them. Crime was always on the news. A slight spike in disappearances didn't really seem like something worth noting. "It's pretty crazy."

"Yeah." Amy said. "Another one just happened right by my house...You know, right there on Chaos and Collision?"

Miles wasn't quite sure where Collision Street was, but he nodded anyways.

"It's just...pretty scary, y'know? The police can't even find a trace of the victims no matter where they look." Amy looked off into space. "Spooky."

Suddenly, Amy glanced behind Miles's shoulder and her whole face lit up.

"I'm telling you. Honey is waaaay hotter..." Knuckles.

"Oh." Amy said, her expression dropping back to normal. "This again."

Miles turned around to see Sonic and Knuckles walking toward their bench. "Dude, no way. It's ALL about Mina Mongoose." Sonic said as they came to a stop in front of Miles. Sonic pointed at him. "Hey...kid."

"Miles."

"Miles." Sonic said quickly. "Right, right...Tell my buddy Knuckles here that that Mina Mongoose is hotter than Honey Viper."

"Uh..." Miles mumbled. He didn't have much of a clue who either of the two were. He had heard their names in passing on TV before, usually for some scandal, so he guessed they were celebrities. "I don't know...I mean...I don't really care."

"See?" Amy piped up. "Even Miles thinks this is stupid." Another small scuffle ensured between the 3. Miles had been eating lunch with them for a week and he was already used to it.

Tikal scooted out from behind Knuckles and gave him a small wave. He smiled and waved back. He felt the most comfortable around Tikal out of all of them.

"Alright, this movie's about to start, so we'll settle this debate _afterward._" Sonic said with a grin. "Let's go people." He waved them toward the entrance to the Mall complex. It was easily Star Light City's biggest and sort of daunting to Miles. He himself had never been in a Mall before.

* * *

"That was _tight."_ Sonic said, as they walked out of the movie. "_Miles _ahead of the first one. Can't wait for the sequel."

Miles didn't know if that was meant to be a corny joke or not.

"I don't know..." Amy said. "I kinda liked the first Shenmue better."

"But this one had better _action!_"

"But the first one was funnier."

Sonic opened his mouth to argue, but appeared to consider Amy's words and realized he couldn't disagree.

"What about you, Miles?" Amy asked, turning to the the small fox boy behind her.

"Well..." Miles admittedly had no idea what was going on in that movie. He'd never seen the first one.

"That was the first of Shenmue I've seen, really."

A few groans and a "C'mon dude." rumbled through the group.

"We really need to get you up to speed, man." Sonic said. "Maybe a movie marathon. We'll bring all the essentials."

"Maybe he'll agree with me on Honey Viper after we show him Fighting Vipers." Knuckles said with a grin. Amy rolled her eyes.

"What IS you're favorite move, if you don't mind me asking?" Tikal said.

"Uh.." Miles would say something geeky like Golden Axe, but he had an image to maintain here. What was something semi-recent that he liked...

"NiGHTS into Dreams..?"

"Yes!" Amy said with a smile. Tikal offered him a high five which he accepted. Sonic, however, let out a loud cough and mumbled "chick flick" under his breath, with Knuckles stifling laughter in response.

* * *

Outside the mall the gang began to go their separate ways. Tikal had to walk home with Knuckles, (much to Miles's disappointment.) and Amy caught a ride home, leaving Miles to walk home with Sonic.

"You're around Emerald Hill and Green, right?" Sonic said as they walked.

"Yeah." Miles said. "Why?"

"I live right around there. I know a shortcut." Sonic said, taking the lead.

As they walked, Miles pulled out his phone to check the time. Sonic grinned "Lemmie see."

Miles handed Sonic the phone. He looked over it, showing his approval with a high pitched whistle. "Fancy. This i-wait, this is _Meteortech?_"

Miles couldn't help but feel a bit sheepish. "Well, technically, yes."

"That's way too nice for Meteortech, man." Sonic said, handing the phone back. "I thought it was some new Robotnik thing. It's ALL about Robotnik, y'know?"

"Well, I sort of made some modifications to it-

"This was all _you?" _Sonic said. "You really _are _a brainiac. I mean that in a good way."

"Uh...thanks, I guess." Miles replied.

"Maybe you could take a look at mine." Sonic said. He reached into his bag and pulled out what was at one point a Robotnik Gamma 3G. The screen was cracked to hell and there were scratches everywhere. Clearly from constant dropping or other kinds of abuse. It broke Miles's heart.

"I'll...see what I can do." Miles said, taking the phone and storing it in his bag.

"Thanks...uh..."

"Miles."

"You know I won't remember that." Sonic laughed. "I'll call ya...Tails."

Miles didn't really like that name, but he noticed Sonic didn't _ask _if he could call him Tails, so it was likely there to stay.

"Alright, the shortcut's this way. Come on." Sonic said, leading Miles into an alleyway. Alleyways were something he was normally apprehensive about, but it wasn't THAT late in the day. It couldn't be _too _dangerous.

As they crossed the middle of the Alleyway, however, Miles heard a metallic clank from behind, like metal slapping against metal. He turned and saw it. What appeared to be a humanoid, but covered in sleek, metal body armour. About Sonic's height, with glowing red eyes. Miles's mind went into overdrive when he saw what was in it's hand. It looked to be some sort of gun like weapon. Not like any gun that he'd ever seen before, but he knew a gun when he saw one.

"Sonic..?" He tried to call over to his friend, but he turned around and saw that Sonic was indeed frozen too. On the other side was an exact copy of the iron assailant Miles saw, even sharing his stance.

"Bro, we should.." Sonic turned toward Miles's direction and saw the steel enemy on his end. His eyes then focused onto Miles's. "You know how fight?"

Before Miles could answer, A flash came from Sonic's end of the alleyway. The hedgehog let out a brief scream and promptly collapsed to the ground.

"Sonic!" Miles gasped. Before he could come to his friend's aid, a jolt of pain shot through the center of his back, and he could feel his consciousness slowly slip away.

* * *

**Bet you didn't expect an update so soon, huh? They won't be this frequent from here on out, unfortunately, but I have this chapter, along with a few others, written in advance and I figured this one would do a better job of selling people on the story, so I decided to go ahead and put it out there. I'll try to toss out something at least once a week though, even if it's short.**

**I also think I may have gone a bit overboard in the Sega references this chapter...**


End file.
